d it seemed to them a
land of no profit,"--so they left, calling it Helluland, or Slate-land,
perhaps the Labrador of the sixteenth century.

They put to sea again and found another land, flat and wooded, with a
white sand shore, low-lying towards the sea. This, said Leif, we will
call after its nature, Markland (Woodland). Thence driving for two days
before a north-east wind, they came to an island, where they landed to
wait for good weather. They tasted the dew on the grass and thought they
had never known anything so sweet. Sailing on again into a sound between
the island and a ness, they reached a place where a river came out of a
lake; into this they towed the ship and anchored, carrying their beds
out on the shore and setting up their tents, with a large hut in the
middle, and made all ready for wintering there.

There was no want of fish food--"the largest salmon in the lake they had
ever seen"--and the country seemed to them so good that they would need
no fodder for cattle in the winter. There was no frost; the grass seemed
fresh enough all the year round, and day and night were more equal than
in Iceland or in Greenland. The crew were divided in two parts: one
worked at the huts and the other explored the country, returning every
night to the camp. From the wild vines found by the foragers, the whole
district was called Vinland, and samples of these, enough to fill the
stern boat, and of the trees and "self-sown wheat" found in the fields
were taken back to Eric's Fiord. Thereafter Leif was called the Lucky,
and got much wealth and fame, but Thorwald Ericson, his brother, thought
he had not explored enough, and "determined to be talked about" even
more than the first settler of Vinland.

He put to sea with thirty men and came straight to Leif's Booths in
Vinland, where he stayed the winter. On the first signs of spring
Thorwald ordered his vessel to be rigged, and sent his longboat on
ahead to explore.

All alike thought the land beautiful and well-wooded; they noticed that
the distance was small between the forest and the sea, that the beach
was all of white sand, and that there were many islands off the shore
and very shallow water; but they saw no trace of man or beast, except a
wooden corn-barn on an island far to the west. After coasting all the
summer they came back in the autumn to the booths.

The next spring Thorwald went eastwards, and "towards the north along
the land they drove upon a cape and